Richard Taylor

Lieutenant-General Richard "Dick" Taylor (January 27, 1826 – April 12, 1879) was an American planter, politician, military historian, and Confederate general. Following the outbreak of the American Civil War, Taylor joined the Confederate States Army, serving first as a brigade commander in Virginia, and later as an army commander in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. Taylor commanded the District of West Louisiana and was responsible for successfully opposing United States troops invading upper northwest Louisiana during the Red River Campaign of 1864. He was the only son of Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States. After the war and Reconstruction, Taylor published a memoir about his experiences.
When the American Civil War erupted, Taylor was asked by Confederate General Braxton Bragg to assist him, as a civilian aide-de-camp without pay, at Pensacola, Florida. Bragg had known Taylor from before the war, and thought his knowledge of military history could help him to organize and train the Confederate forces. Taylor had been opposed to secession, but accepted the appointment.
On October 21, 1861, Taylor was promoted to brigadier general, commanding a Louisiana brigade under Richard S. Ewell in the Shenandoah Valley campaign led by Stonewall Jackson.Taylor subsequently traveled with the rest of Jackson's command to take part in the Seven Days Battles around Richmond.
Taylor was promoted to the rank of major general on July 28, 1862. He was the youngest major general in the Confederacy.
During 1863, Taylor directed an effective series of clashes with Union forces over control of lower Louisiana. Taylor marched his army up to Richmond, Louisiana. There he was joined with Confederate Maj. Gen. John G. Walker's Texas Division, who called themselves "Walker's Greyhounds". Taylor ordered Walker's division to attack Federal troops at two locations on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi. The ensuing Battle of Milliken's Bend and Battle of Young's Point failed to accomplish the Confederate objectives. After initial success at Milliken's Bend, that engagement ended in failure after Federal gunboats began shelling the Confederate positions. Young's Point ended prematurely as well.

In response to Confederates summarily executing black U.S. soldiers, U.S. Army general Ulysses S. Grant, wrote a letter to Taylor, urging the Confederates to treat captured black U.S. soldiers humanely and professionally and not murder them. Grant stated the official position of the U.S. government, that black U.S. soldiers were sworn military men and not insurrectionist slaves, as the Confederates asserted they were.

Taylor was given command of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. After General John Bell Hood's disastrous campaign into Tennessee and near destruction of his army at the Battle of Franklin, Taylor was briefly given command of the Army of Tennessee, until most of its remnant was sent to contest Sherman's march further north through the Carolinas from Savannah. He surrendered his department at Citronelle, Alabama, the third and last major Confederate force remaining east of the Mississippi, to Union General Edward Canby on May 4, 1865, almost a month after Appomattox Courthouse and was paroled three days later. The rest of his command was paroled on May 12, 1865, in Gainesville, Alabama.

Richard Taylor was the only son of Margaret Mackall Smith and President Zachary Taylor. His sister Sarah Knox Taylor was the first wife of Jefferson Davis, but died of illness in 1835, three months after their marriage. His sister Mary Elizabeth, who had married William Wallace Smith Bliss in 1848, served as her father's White House hostess. Although Taylor chose to serve the Confederacy, his uncle, Joseph Pannell Taylor, served in the Union Army as a Brigadier-General.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Taylor_(Confederate_general)